Visit of Dr Elena Harjes
We hosted Dr Elena Harjes of Massey University, Palmerston North today. Dr Harjes gave an very interesting talk on her work on the APOBEC3 protein. You can download the seminar flyer here.
Leung Research Group
Structural and Mechanistic Enzymology
Paper on HSP90
Congratulation to Mike, Nasri and Yu. Their work on the development of HSP90 inhibitors, which was conducted in collaboration with Dr Jóhannes Reynisson and his student Daniel Ayine-Tora, was accepted for publication in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters.
Nasri started the HSP90 work during his BScH project in 2015, which Mike has carried on during his MSc to conduct binding experiments and helped write the manuscript. Yu was the senior PhD student who looked after both Nasri and Mike in the lab and helped with protein production and purification.
You can read about their work by following this link http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmcl.2016.11.059
NZIC Auckland – Treasurer
Following the Annual General Meeting today, Ivan is delighted to be able to continue to serve as Treasurer of the NZIC Auckland branch for another year.
2nd Green Chemistry Symposium Poster Prize
Ram Bhusal, a PhD student who is supervised by Dr Jon Sperry and co-supervised by Ivan, has shared a poster prize at the 2nd Green Chemistry Symposium that was held at the University of Auckland Conference Centre. Ram presented his work, which was conducted in the lab of Dr Sperry during the 1st year of his PhD studies, on the synthesis of value-added nitrogen-heterocycles by a sustainable approach. Well done Ram.
New Cover
Our review article “Protein-directed combinatorial chemistry: a guide to protein ligand and inhibitor discovery”, written by Mike and Ivan, has made to the cover of the July edition of the journal Molecules. You can read the article via the link here.
Moving to the City Campus
After a long wait, we are finally moving our Laboratory from our temporary home at the Old Liggins Building in Grafton to the brand new Science Centre in the City Campus. Thanks everyone for helping with the move, especially with the packing and unpacking of equipment, chemicals and biological items. Hopefully we can start working in our new lab soon!!
Farewell lunch to Dr Leiwen Xiang
After spending a year at the University of Auckland (hosted by Professor Laurie Melton and co-hosted by us) working on milk proteins, Dr Leiwen Xiang will be returning to his native China. We wish Leiwen all the best and hope he has enjoyed his time in New Zealand.
NZIC-16
Danilo and Ivan went to the NZIC-16 meeting, which was held in Queenstown between 21st and 24th of August. Danilo presented a poster about his work on the production of LRRK2 kinase and ribosomal proteins, and Ivan gave a Talk in one of the parallel sessions on Mike’s work on the determination of binding constants by the waterLOGSY technique.
Queenstown is a beautiful place and we thank the meeting organiser for their invitations and for the successful organisation of the conference!
Visit of Professor David Wishart (ANZMAG Lecturer)
On behalf of ANZMAG and the School of Chemical Sciences, we hosted Professor David Wishart, who is the ANZMAG Lecturer in 2016, for a seminar today. Professor Wishart gave an insightful talk on the applications of NMR spectroscopy in metabolomics. You can download the seminar flyer here.
Welcome new members of the group
We had a Group Lunch today to celebrate Dona handing in her BScH thesis and also welcome our two latest members – Brooke Kwai who will be doing a BScH project together with Dr Jon Sperry, and Naasson Mbenza, who will be joining as a PhD student.
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